


before you go, can you read my mind?

by nuclearmuffins



Series: The Caster's Canticle [6]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Amicable Exes, F/M, Fluff, Inquisitor (Dragon Age) Backstory, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22758817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuclearmuffins/pseuds/nuclearmuffins
Summary: "That was a memory for a different time, seemingly another life, but it made him smile nonetheless." Or, Gabriel Lavellan and an old lover meet up again.Originally written for a prompt on r/dragonage.
Relationships: Male Lavellan/OC (past)
Series: The Caster's Canticle [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1497341
Kudos: 2





	before you go, can you read my mind?

**Author's Note:**

> Original Prompt: A smear of flour, heat, stained lips.
> 
> Title from Read My Mind - The Killers.

" _ Gabriel Lavellan? _ I can't believe it, is that you?"

As burdened as he was by the weight of the small child in his arms, Gabriel took a little while to turn around. At the moment, his main worry was making sure that he did not drop her, nor let her do anything stupid and dangerous that would get her killed. Infants had shockingly little regard for their own lives, he'd learned in his years of being a parent. He did more worrying for Lona and Emer's lives than they did for themselves.

Right now, he was trying to make sure Emer wasn't sticking something poisonous into her mouth while he wasn't looking - not that Ostwick's market district trafficked much in forbidden items, but he was a stalwart worrier. When he finally let himself look away to see who had called his name, it took a little while for the recognition to settle in.  _ "Bathsheba?" _ he grinned a bit foolishly. He hadn't even realized he was standing outside  _ her _ bakery. "I almost didn't recognize you!"

"Have I changed that much?" Bathsheba shot back a sly smirk, as mischevious as he'd remembered it, despite the passage of time. For a moment, he let himself remember how much he'd enjoyed kissing those lips, blood-flushed and stained with the lightest hint of rouge.  _ Ghilana wouldn’t like that. _

She really hadn't changed much, but it had been years since he'd seen her last. As lovely as ever, with her dark brown hair arranged into a plait, falling softly to her waist. Her hair pulled back to reveal her rounded ears, pierced through with two small golden hoops. Even with the smear of flour on her cold-flushed cheeks, she looked like she belonged in a painting by an Antivan master, not standing outside a tiny bakery in the Ostwick market. But not even a forest elf begging her to be whisked away with him could have made her leave.

"You haven't, no," he laughed. "But maybe it's my eyes going bad."

"Mmm. You've certainly changed since I've seen you last, though," she turned towards Emer with a smile. "Is this your little one? She looks like you."

"My second," he said, bouncing his daughter in his arms, proudly planting a kiss onto her head. "Emer, this is Miss Bathsheba. You want to say hello?"

When Emer instead turned away and buried her face in his shoulder, Bathsheba howled in laughter. "I'm not quite  _ Miss _ anymore, but I'll take it as a compliment over my youthful beauty rather than the fact you thought me a spinster."

Gabriel raised his brows, curious. "Oh? Who's the lucky gentleman?"  _ Certainly not me. I did give her the choice, once. _

"You remember Geordie, the blacksmith's son?" Gabriel nodded. He remembered the young man, a year younger than himself, who'd always been markedly more pleasant speaking to the "heathen" elf that came to trade than some of the other store owners in the market district. "After you left, he went through all the trouble of trying to court me. I figured he wanted access to free bread for the rest of his life, but there was a good bride price, and he wasn't that hard on the eyes. Plus he knows how to keep the oven from catching fire and nearly burning the whole store down. Unlike  _ someone _ I used to know."

"You still remember that? That was-  _ Fenedhis, _ " Gabriel breathed, realizing just how long ago it had been. "Seven years ago!"

"Our younger and more vulnerable years," Bathsheba mused. You know, sometimes I still think of what might have happened if I'd left with you."

Gabriel shuffled his feet as he felt Emer stir in his arms. "I do too," he admitted. "But I don't think I could have made you happy, in the long run."

She nodded. "I did really consider it, you know. But your Dalish clan would have never accepted a human like me. And this is my home. A life of caravans and hunting was never going to be the one I was going to live," she did look a little regretful, turning her face away for a moment. But her eyes turned back to him as she opened the door behind her, letting the pleasant, balmy heat from inside warm him, wafting over the mouth-watering scent of baking bread. "Do you want to come in? I could get you something for the road. And a treat for the little one."

He remembered lazy afternoons spent in those kitchens, trying to help her bake but both of them laughing as they ended up doused in flour. That was a memory for a different time, seemingly another life, but it made him smile nonetheless. "I think I will."


End file.
